Green Lab

Course Objective

Upon completion of this course, students will:
- Learn the principles of empirical experimentation in the field of
Software Engineering. (Knowledge and understanding)
- Be able to operate in a lab environment and build a successful
experiment for software energy consumption. (Applying knowledge and
understanding) (Making judgements) (Lifelong learning skills)
- Become familiar with the research problems in the field of green
software engineering. (Knowledge and understanding)
- Understand and measure the impact of software over energy consumption.
) (Applying knowledge and understanding) (Making judgements)

Course Content

Students will work in teams to perform experiments on software energy
consumption in a controlled environment. They will have to carry out all
the phases of empirical experimentation, from experiment design to
operation, data analysis and reporting. They will be provided with
examples of previous experiments, but they will have to choose by
themselves the experimental subjects and hypotheses to test. During the
lab sessions, students will be assisted for technical operation of the
lab equipment as regards measurement and data gathering. Students will
also receive the required training for data analysis and visualization
(i.e. graphs, dashboards) using specialized software.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Lectures (H). Lab sessions (pra).

Method of Assessment

Students will be assessed via a team project. The team project will be
carried out throughout the whole course by groups of 3-5 students; each
part of the project will be started and completed during the course and
finished as homework so that students will likely be on track within the
course schedule. The result of the team project is about planning,
designing, conducting, and reporting a successful experiment for
software energy efficiency in a specific technological context, such as
mobile applications, robotics, and microservices. In this way, students
will put into practice the skills and techniques that they have learned
during the lectures and develop their practical insights by applying
them to real software. The experiment will be evaluated by the
instructor starting from a written report describing each main aspect of
the experiment and according to a shared assessment rubric (presented in
the first lecture of the course).

Literature

Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Höst, M., Ohlsson, M. C., Regnell, B., &
Wesslén, A. (2012). Experimentation in software engineering. Springer.

Material distributed on Canvas.

Additional Information Target Audience

MSc Computer Science
MSc Computer Security

Recommended background knowledge

Basic statistical analysis techniques (descriptive statistics and most
common tests).